Des Moines Symphony announces 2013-14 season lineup

Mar. 18, 2013

Bella Hristova / Photos Special to the Register

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Aaron Williams / Photos Special to the Register

Des Moines Symphony maestro Joseph Giunta

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The Des Moines Symphony announced the lineup for its 2013-2014 season, which marks Joseph Giunta’s 25th on the conductor’s podium. He said his plans for the repertoire were inspired by several of the teachers and conductors who helped (and humbled) him when he was first starting out, including Eugene Ormandy, Charles Dutoit and Leonard Bernstein. Take a look:

July 3: The 20th annual Yankee Doodle Pops concert outside the State Capitol.

Sept. 14-15: Pianist Ilya Yakushev returns after a visit in 2011 (when he earned one of the fastest standing ovations I’ve ever seen) to play Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major in an all-Russian program with Glinka’s Overture to “Russlan and Ludmilla” and Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony.

Oct. 19-20: The young Japanese violinist Fumiaki Miura makes his Des Moines Symphony debut with Bruch’s “Scottish Fantasy” between Wagner’s “Rienzi” Overture, Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and a suite from Richard Strauss’ opera “Der Rosenkavalier.”

Nov. 16-17: The orchestra gives the Beyond the Score treatment to Holst’s “The Planets,” with narration and outer-space film footage to explore the composer’s inspiration from Greece, India, ancient astrology and the night sky itself.

Dec. 31: The Hit Men, which includes members of the original Four Seasons, Tommy James and the Shondells, and others, headline the annual New Year’s Eve Pops with hits like “December 1963 (Oh, What a Night),” “Mony Mony” and other tunes that will get stuck in your head until 2015.

Feb. 15-16, 2014: David Snyder guest-conducts an all-Gershwin program for Valentine’s weekend, featuring pianist Kevin Cole in “Rhapsody in Blue,” soprano Sylvia McNair in “Summertime” and “I Got Rhythm,” and , just for kicks, the acclaimed tap dancer Ryan van den Boom. The musical throwback to the ’20s is produced by Todd Gershwin (George and Ira’s great nephew), with projections of the famous family’s home videos.

April 12-13, 2004: Beethoven’s groundbreaking Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) anchors a program with his Violin Concerto in D Major, featuring the Hungarian soloist Bella Hristova. The concerts opens with Barber’s “The School for Scandal Overture,” which he wrote as a student at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute.

May 10-11, 2004: The rising star Benjamin Grosvenor hits the hot seat for Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor in a program with Berlioz’s “Roman Carnival Overture,” Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun” and Giunta’s favorite Brahms symphony, the First, in C Minor.

GET TICKETS: Multi-concert packages are on sale now, starting at $144 for adults and $72 for students. www.dmsymphony.org